Cemetery Polka - Rain Dogs [109]

It’s one more week of traumatic noise-endurance music torture, as Helen Zaltzman, John Hodgkin and the audience from the London Podcast Festival are finally released from their purgatorial fortnight at King’s Place. With some suspicion over the veracity of the stories surrounding Waits’s family, the welcome calming influence of Jake Thackray and outlandish promises of future guests for the podcast, Song by Song concludes its series of live shows with this third track from Rain Dogs. Next year we’ll have fewer human sacrifices, promise…

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Cemetery Polka, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985)

Lah-Di-Dah, Jake In The Box, Jake Thackray (2006/1967)


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Clap Hands - Rain Dogs [108]

The discussion continues at the London Podcast Festival, as our guests Helen Zaltzman and John Hodgman return to talk through the second track from Rain Dogs. John’s stories about his London-cheese-based glory days give way to anecdotes from Helen concerning the secret burial of her grandmother, but the vibe is pretty much the same - a lot of hand-clapping games, riffs on host’s names, the condemnation of this show’s topic as "a big phoney" - the usual stuff.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Clap Hands, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985)

The Clapping Song, The Clapping Song… and more, Shirley Ellis (2016/1965)

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Singapore - Rain Dogs [107]

We are back! And in an effort to change the format slightly without really having to think of anything too new or original, we've roped some podcasting luminaries into kicking off season 10 of... what's the name of the show again?

This week we kick off Rain Dogs with contributions from our latest guest hosts Helen Zaltzman and John Hodgman, as they tell us about some of their personal histories with this album, talk about inter-Pacific cultural appropriation, and pin down some of the subtleties of Bay Area geography.

(seriously though, what is the name of the show?)

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Singapore, Rain Dogs, Tom Waits (1985)

Sausolito, Western Union Band, Western Union Band (2003/1972)

Town With No Cheer, Anywhere I Lay My Head, Scarlett Johansson/Tom Waits (2008)

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